title: Sensitivity to cisplatin in primary cell lines derived from human glioma correlates with levels of EGR-1 expression.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Less than 30% of malignant gliomas respond to adjuvant chemotherapy. Here, we have asked whether variations in the constitutive expression of early-growth response factor 1 (EGR-1) predicted acute cytotoxicity and clonogenic cell death in vitro, induced by six different chemotherapics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cytotoxicity assays were performed on cells derived from fresh tumor explants of 18 human cases of malignant glioma. In addition to EGR-1, tumor cultures were investigated for genetic alterations and the expression of cancer regulating factors, related to the p53 pathway.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that sensitivity to cisplatin correlates significantly with levels of EGR-1 expression in tumors with wild-type p53/INK4a/p16 status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased knowledge of the mechanisms regulating EGR-1 expression in wild-type p53/INK4a/p16 cases of glioma may help in the design of new chemotherapeutic strategies for these tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical-surgical Science and Biotechnologies, University of Rome "Sapienza", Corso della Repubblica 79, 04100 Latina, Italy. antonella.calogero@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calogero
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Porcellini
authors.forename: Vincenza
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lombari
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fabbiano
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arcella
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miscusi
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ponti
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ragona